Erin and Helen went to Orlando last week to visit Jeannie and the Academy softball team in their annual Spring Break tournament. In the four years that Jeannie has been playing softball at the Academy, this is their best record during this Orlando tournament. In addition to seeing their team play some great games, we enjoyed some of the other attractions that northern Florida has to offer.
We drove to the Kennedy Space Center, spending the afternoon touring the facilities. This outstanding tour gave us a better understanding of what is involved with each space shuttle launch. The girls were all set to watch (from quite a distance) a shuttle launch on Wednesday evening. However, several hours before the launch, it was scrubbed. The Kennedy Space Center is located in a nature reserve and we loved seeing the alligators, armadillos and great variety of birds. We learned that outside of Alaska, Florida has the greatest population of bald eagles. And we saw an eagle sitting on it's nest.
Erin has always had a love for manatees and we were able to see some in their natural environment. We drove to Blue Spring State Park, just north of Orlando, on the St. John's River. We learned that manatees hang out here during the winter months since the water temperature in Blue Spring is a constant 72 degrees. Manatees cannot survive in water temperatures of 60 degrees of below. They are beautiful animals, very slow moving and docile. But curious when we approached the beach area. This one seemed to have a scar on his back, probably from an accident with a power boat. This was a great area to view these creatures.
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